What a great day for racing!
Melrose runners participated in ten races over the holiday weekend and eight races on the Fourth of July. There may have been more races, but I can only see 10 races on the MRC web site.
Four runners ran two races on The 4th of July: Matt Kerton, Andrea Kerton, Gail Severt and Andy Brown. I’ve done that twice before, and it’s not easy. From their times it looked like they were able to get to their second race, no problem.
Jennifer Tinney Road Races
I wasn’t sure how many people would drive to East Boxford Village to run a 5K or 5 mile race. When I got there I was pleasantly surprised to see so many purple singlets! Four people ran the 5K and nine people ran the 5 miler.
We are missing Rebecca Hughes, one of our recent Walk-to-Run graduates. A Walk-to-Run grad ran a 5K right after finishing her training! How cool is that!
And Mike Sikkema won the whole enchilada! He received a medal for winning his age group, and a gift card for winning the race. Lots of other medals for MRC runners. 
I ran the Jennifer Tinney 5 Miler in 2013 and loved the whole scene up in Boxford. It’s a small town. The race is low key and it has more of an emphasis on family. I love a big race in Cambridge or Boston, but a change of pace is always a nice change of pace.
I’ll have a more complete blog post on Wednesday morning around 10AM. It will be on my FB page and the blog it self.
Off to the next race
Our next race is the Mary O’Donnell 5K at Pine Banks in Melrose. This is almost as convenient as the Firefighter’s Father’s Day 5K.
Registration is open, but I do not see a way to make a club designation. This is their 2nd running of this race and I get the impression they are still learning how to do this.
This race raises funds for ALS. Over the weekend Lou Frates was in the hospital and it looks bleak to a non-professional. That being said, please consider this race a worthy cause to support with your running dollars.
I did ask about a discount for the club. We could get a $5.00 discount per runner if five or more of us signed up on a sheet of paper. The logistics of getting everyone and their checks together and not missing anyone were more than I was willing to take on.
In addition, I think the people looking for a cure for ALS need our $5.00 more than we do.
The Mary O’Donnell 5K is at 9AM on August 13th. The Sunday Long run will be 16.2 miles that day, and I cannot miss it. As such, I wont be able to run this race.
I encourage everyone who is not doing the SLR program to sign up and head over to Pine Banks for a great run and to support a local 5K race.
Run well my Friends,
Andy